Li Mingxiu was stunned for a moment when he heard Su Yi's words, then reacted and replied, "Alright, CEO Su, everyone is still a bit unaccustomed after arriving, sleeping poorly, and not used to the food. The subsequent work indeed requires some time to be fully assessed."
"Hehe, you're quite astute, kid."
Hearing Li Mingxiu's words, Wang Huaijin gave a symbolic compliment.
"Oh, right..." Li Mingxiu paused, then added, "CEO Su, I heard that the shareholders of FXCM International have been in contact with other potential investors during our assessment of FXCM International's asset value. I'm wondering... will this hinder our subsequent further negotiations, and even the entire plan to acquire FXCM International?
After all, according to Mr. Isaac... The initial indicative acquisition prices offered by the other potential acquirers are all higher than our guaranteed minimum acquisition price. Although our institution has tried to relax other conditions as much as possible, and has fully considered the original interests of FXCM International's shareholders after the acquisition.
However, the attractiveness of these additional conditions to FXCM International's shareholders. No matter what, it still can't compare to actual cash. Once an important shareholder with a significant stake among FXCM International's shareholders wavers and leans towards other potential acquiring institutions. Then it will be quite difficult for us to gain full control of FXCM International."
Su Yi smiled when he heard Li Mingxiu's words and said, "I'm not surprised that FXCM International's shareholders are contacting other potential investment institutions during this period. As for your concern that other potential acquiring institutions might offer FXCM International's shareholders better acquisition terms.
I had CEO Wang investigate the situation of the institutions currently interested in acquiring FXCM International, based on what we learned from Isaac. We found that these institutions, solely relying on their own capital, cannot complete the acquisition of FXCM International.
Moreover, among these institutions, except for Gain Capital International, the others have only general interest in acquiring FXCM International. Gain Capital International was also affected by this round of the 'Pound Sterling Black Swan' event. According to our investigation, Gain Capital International's internal capital chain, cash flow, especially its reserve cash, is not abundant at this time.
Although they have a strong desire to acquire FXCM International, complete the integration of the two companies' businesses, and absorb the users FXCM International has accumulated over two decades in the foreign exchange trading field, they cannot provide that much cash to rescue the current FXCM International. At most, they can only choose a private placement of shares scheme to acquire FXCM International.
Therefore, we don't need to be overly concerned about this competitor. And what you mentioned, worrying that a certain important shareholder of FXCM International might be unwilling to sell their shares, or that other institutions might offer a higher price for the shares.
There's no need to worry about this issue either. In our previous negotiations, we have already signed a preliminary letter of intent with FXCM International's shareholders. Our institution will only acquire the shares at the market fair value after assessment if the total shares that all shareholders are willing to sell exceed 75%. If this condition is not met, then the unified acquisition plan will naturally not be established.
And as we all know. As time goes on, without external capital intervention, FXCM International's operating conditions and company fundamentals are continuously deteriorating. In other words, as time passes, the actual value of the shares held by FXCM International's shareholders. Is continuously decreasing.
If the entire acquisition plan collapses because a certain important shareholder is unwilling to sell their shares, it would be equivalent to that shareholder harming the interests of all other FXCM International shareholders who are willing to sell their shares.
In this situation, I don't think we need to intervene. The other FXCM International shareholders will naturally find a way to persuade the shareholder unwilling to sell their shares.
Overall, regardless of how the situation evolves, and regardless of whether other potential acquiring institutions compete with us on pricing, we currently hold the initiative. So, everyone, there's no need to worry. What we need to do now is simply proceed step by step, according to the plan."
"Alright, CEO Su." Li Mingxiu nodded.
After hearing Su Yi's analysis, he felt much more at ease.
"Although we intend to drag out the time a bit, don't give others a handle to think that we are deliberately delaying the formal negotiations," Su Yi thought for a moment as Li Mingxiu was about to turn and leave, then emphasized, "When you lead the working group, you must pay attention to this, otherwise, in subsequent formal negotiations, once our team is caught out, it will be disadvantageous for us in maintaining control of the negotiation initiative."
Li Mingxiu smiled and said, "Don't worry, CEO Su, I understand, I know what to do."
After speaking, Li Mingxiu left Su Yi's room and returned to the team's studio.
After Li Mingxiu left, Su Yi took out his phone and immediately called Isaac, saying with a smile, "Mr. Isaac, when are we going to those few scenic spots you mentioned earlier? After coming down from the island, I find this place increasingly interesting. Our team's assessment and audit work will probably take some more time to complete, so I'd like to explore a bit more."
"No problem," Isaac said happily. "Then let's set off tomorrow morning."
Regarding Su Yi's request, he simply thought Su Yi was attracted by the local customs and wanted to explore the surroundings more.
He didn't think about the conflict of interest with the acquisition project at all.
So, for the next few days.
Under Isaac's guidance as a 'tour guide', Su Yi basically completely forgot about the acquisition and negotiation work, either traveling and sightseeing or sunbathing on the beach.
During this period...
At first, FXCM International's shareholders could still sit tight.
They waited for Huayi Capital's final acquisition offer after the audit and assessment were completed, while continuing to contact previous potential acquiring institutions.
During their contacts, several interested institutions from Wall Street.
After hearing that FXCM International's shareholders requested an all-cash acquisition and stated they would only sell a total of 75% of FXCM International shares, they basically refused the shareholders' demands outright, without even a plan for the next step of contact.
Ultimately, only Gain Capital International's institution agreed to consider it.
But when FXCM International's shareholders thought that Gain Capital International, after serious consideration, would propose acquisition terms significantly better than those offered by Huayi Capital.
After another contact.
Gain Capital International's institution, however, stated that while they could agree to a cash acquisition, the price for the cash acquisition would only be 80% of the private placement share acquisition scheme's price, and the funds intended to acquire the shares held by FXCM International's shareholders would be paid in five annual installments after the share transfer.
At the same time, Gain Capital International's institution also stated that after the acquisition.
FXCM International's current non-core businesses would be cut, and only the 'market maker' business would remain.
The proposal of these conditions made it completely unacceptable for FXCM International's shareholders.
Fairly speaking, Gain Capital International's adjusted indicative acquisition plan had no competitiveness whatsoever compared to the indicative acquisition plan offered by Su Yi.
"They're going too far, truly too far."
After the negotiations with Gain Capital International's institution were completed, Noel said indignantly.
"I've said it before, Gain Capital International, our old competitor, is completely untrustworthy," Patrick said. "Relatively speaking, Huayi Capital is more reliable, and CEO Su of Huayi Capital personally led the negotiation team, coming from afar, which indeed shows full sincerity."
"But the guaranteed minimum acquisition price offered by Huayi Capital is really too low," Noel sighed and said.
Patrick smiled and said, "Don't forget, this is an all-cash acquisition. Under the conditions of an all-cash acquisition, a relative discount is probably inevitable."
"Gain Capital International was also significantly affected by this round of the 'Pound Sterling exchange rate black swan' event," Stewart mused for a moment, then said, "Although their overall situation is better than ours, their group absolutely cannot come up with that much money to acquire us, which is also why they proposed installment payments."
"Forget about the installment payment condition..." Noel said, "The key is that once we agree to Gain Capital International's acquisition demands, our FXCM International will definitely be unrecognizable after Gain Capital International's changes, and after the two companies' businesses merge, our FXCM International will lose the opportunity for independent operation, and our status within the Gain Capital International Group will also plummet, which is something I cannot accept."
"So..." Patrick paused, then said, "Is Huayi Capital truly the only savior for our FXCM International now?"
Stewart thought for a moment and responded, "You can't say that. It's still not too late for us to seek out other new potential acquiring institutions, Noel... Didn't you say before that Barclays Investment Bank was also very interested in our FXCM International?"
"Mr. Reginald from Barclays Investment Bank did indeed say something like that on the phone before," Noel replied, "But I don't know if their institution is still interested in our FXCM International now?"
Stewart said, "Call and ask."
Noel thought for a moment and finally accepted Stewart's suggestion, calling Reginald.
When Noel proactively mentioned that FXCM International was seeking investors or potential acquirers, Reginald still expressed strong interest.
However, given the extreme difficulties FXCM International currently faced.
They were only willing to offer an indicative acquisition price of 1.1 billion US dollars in total.
Noel had no interest whatsoever in the overall acquisition price of 1.1 billion US dollars, so he didn't ask further questions and simply ended the conversation.
Afterwards, for the next two days.
Several important shareholders of FXCM International privately and proactively inquired with several other investment institutions.
The replies they received indicated that as time progressed, the preliminary indicative prices offered by various institutions were getting lower and lower, eventually even reaching offers of 950 million US dollars for a full acquisition of FXCM International.
It was only then that FXCM International's shareholders.
Realized that as time went on, both the asset value of FXCM International and the value of their shares were depreciating rapidly.
They also realized that if they didn't sign with Huayi Capital soon.
Huayi Capital might not even be willing to offer the guaranteed minimum acquisition price of 1.05 billion US dollars in the end.
Thinking of this, Stewart hurriedly called Isaac, who had recently been leading Su Yi and his group around, hoping he would persuade Su Yi to proceed with the next step of negotiations and the signing of the corresponding letter of intent as soon as possible.
Isaac responded twice, then told Su Yi about Stewart's thoughts.
After understanding Su Yi's ideas, he quickly called Stewart back and said, "Chairman, CEO Su said that their team's assessment data for our group is not out yet, and he wants to wait for the assessment results before proceeding with further discussions."
"Didn't I have Tasha provide them with all the financial data?" Stewart wondered. "With Tasha's full cooperation, how has their team still not produced comprehensive and accurate assessment data after all this time?"
"Oh, I know the reason for this," Isaac said. "It seems that Group Leader Li, who is in charge of this business, and several members of their team got sick, which delayed the progress of the work. Just this morning, I saw CEO Su severely reprimand Group Leader Li."
"Is that so?" Stewart asked in surprise. "Then when will their assessment work be completed?"
Isaac said, "I'm not sure about that. Originally, I wanted others in our company to help with the audit and assessment, but CEO Su definitely wouldn't trust us; he would certainly use his own people."
"Chairman, we can't let time drag on like this," Noel said urgently next to Stewart after hearing Isaac's words. "The longer we drag it out, the more disadvantageous it will be for us."
"Patrick, what do you think?"
Stewart didn't hang up the phone but turned his gaze to Patrick.
Patrick thought for a moment and said, "I think Noel is right. We need to complete the subsequent signing matters as soon as possible. The company's debt payment period is almost due. If we delay another twenty days, our company's operations will not be able to function normally, and employees' salaries will not be able to be paid normally.
At that time, there will definitely be big problems, and once the payment period is overdue, our company's credibility will truly completely collapse. By then... our company, and the value of the shares we hold, will probably shrink significantly, and it will become even more difficult for the company to weather the crisis."
"Alright, I understand." Stewart, after hearing their opinions, picked up the phone again and said to Isaac, "Tell CEO Su that there's no need to wait for the subsequent audit and assessment data. We accept the guaranteed minimum acquisition price he mentioned earlier, and we are willing to sell the corresponding shares we hold according to the preliminary letter of intent to advance Huayi Capital's overall acquisition of our FXCM International."
"Accept... the guaranteed minimum acquisition price?"
Hearing Stewart's words, Isaac on the other end of the phone instantly jumped up from his chair in surprise.
(End of Chapter)